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Things are pretty bad here right now... although I am right on the edge of the ice area, the trees are beginning to glisten as the rain stops and we lost power for an hour. Right now the whole state is under a state of emergency.
About 5 miles west of me, it's sheer ice.
Jolt, are you OK? Pictures of Worcester look terrible.
Kfergos, please tell me you didn't ride today!
I am fine--am actually in Boston right now (literally just finished a final exam). We still had power when I left the house this morning and the roads were OK driving to the train; the only issue I had was having to scrape the ice off my car windows so really can't complain given the problems some people have had (my instructor, for example, lost power at her house and a tree fell on her husband's car!!).
I actually drove from Bedford to Marlborough this morning before light. The roads were fine, but the branches/limbs/trees down in the northwest burbs are pretty bad. Of course, I got to an office with no power, so had to drive back home. It was amazing seeing the tree damage - this is going to take some time to clean up.
Now the worry is flooding, freezing pipes (for those without power, of which there are 250K in NH and over 125K in MA). They're saying that power might not be restored for some until Sunday :eek:.
Be safe everyone. Wonder what the final 'cross race will be like tomorrow?
SheFly
No sign of ice here in Lexington.
I just came home from the gym; so many trees down and branches. I saw 2 fire trucks and an ambulance leaving my street, but I don't know what happened. One of the houses across from the pond had a tree fall on the deck and it's absolutely demolished.
The driving was fine, but I imagine it will all freeze tonight. Just hoping the power stays on...
I think you're right about tonight...it's supposed to get really cold so we will probably have a skating rink tomorrow. I'm heading home in a couple hours...we'll see if the power is still on!Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
I lived half my lifetime in MA so I've encountered a few of those wretched ice storms. :p Stay safe all!!
That will be PERFECT for racing 'cross tomorrow in Wrentham - NOT! Maybe I should get out the studded tires....Quote:
Originally Posted by Jolt
SheFly
Isn't Lexington right next to Concord? Strange weather patterns! Be safe (stay home!)Quote:
Originally Posted by DebW
Well, not exactly ;) . There is a town in between no matter which direction you go (Bedford or Lincoln). The fact is, actually, that downtown Concord was not affected (I just came from there), but as you head out of town, NOT FAR, the ice and damage starts. Crankin lives just outside of town, heading towards Acton.Quote:
Originally Posted by tulip
As I drove home from my powerless office this morning, there was ice all the way until just before the Concord River, and then it was gone. No ice here.
The sun is out in Bedford now, and the temp is up to 37. With predictions of temps in the teens tonight, however, flash freezing is s distinct possibility.
SheFly
Good geography lesson, SheFly! Actually, my driveway and the less steep side of the hill are fine. But I just had to go out again and for some reason, I turned right at the end of my driveway. When I got to the top of the hill, it was like a war zone. Trees down all along the side of the road, next to the shared driveways and big thick areas of ice. Lots of ice falling from the trees, since it's 40 out now. The sun is shining, too. I wonder if a tree fell on a car as it was driving down the hill and that what I saw all the fire trucks for.
Yeah, thanks for the geography lesson. I lived in Cambridge until I was 12, but I was a real city kid. I thought going to Watertown was a drive to the country (really!). Then I moved to rural North Carolina--what a shock that was, you can imagine.
Hope the ice melts and no one was hurt and that the power comes back on pronto.
Lisa just sent me a quick email from a laptop in her car. They have no power, but they do have a woodstove, so they are able to stay warm. They don't know when power will be restored but it might be DAYS. :eek::eek::eek:
she lives in upper state NY
I figured Lisa was without power. Actually, she doesn't live in upper NY state. She lives about 15-20 miles over the border from western MA, in the Berkshires. If you look on a map, it's pretty far south for NY state, except for the city.
The sun is shining, but for the people without power, what good does it do? Same thing here, about 3 days until it goes back on in the towns that are without power. I would be outta here, since we don't have a wood stove. My neighbor's daughter, husband, and 3 kids who live on the NH seacoast have been here since yesterday morning. They don't know when they can go back.
I grew up in the NE so I have gone through many of those fun storms. I remember one back in 1992 I think it was...ice skating in the parkinglots and trying to keep the pipes from freezing.. Hope everyone is safe.
sorry, i grew up in NJ and everything north of NYC was "upper new york state" :D
I grew up near Rochester, NY and that was considered Upstate NY also. I think anything north of NYC generally has been considered Upstate..alough that is a large area:p
Come to my house if you would like some ice. Still after 48 hrs, power lines down, trees down all over town - line down in my yard, and the ice hasn't melted off the trees yet. It's a veritable skating rink where I am. Phillipston got hit bad and the whole area is without power. I'm at 1200 ft and that elevation doesn't help. I've been without power for 48 hours with no heat so far, and they don't predict the power back on for many more days.
The night of the storm I heard a huge crack, noise, thump in the middle of sleep. After having just been robbed, it sounded like someone trying to break down the cellar door and I bolted upright. But then began the bewitching hours where literally, every 20 minutes the cracking and snapping of trees and branches occurred for the next 8 hours well into morning. The trees were so heavy with ice. It kept me awake all night it was so loud and frequent. The ones further in the woods sounded like a shotgun going off, echo and all. A couple of times branches hit the roof and I heard scraping against the house. I was seriously thinking of moving to the living room couch in the middle of the house away from trees but I didn't.
I planned ahead as I usually do and filled jugs of water for drinking and 5 gallon buckets with water for toilet flushing prior to losing power. The temp in the house held to 58d the first day. Last night it fell to 52 and today it maintained at 42 degrees. Brrr. When I can see my breath then it's time to get out of the house but I couldn't drive the roads until today. The fire department came to my house to tell me there is a state of emergency (I didn't have much contact with the outside world) and they told me they've opened up a shelter for people nearby. I've been using the shelter to refill water. I came to work in Lowell where there is power, I can shower, get gas (can't get gas where I am), stock up on water, check internet, and yes while I'm here actually work. All those years I lived with wood stoves but I don't have one now and I sure miss it. Obviously I can't find a generator east of the Mississippi but you bet I'll get one when they're back in stock. Anyway I won't be back online for a while. I have my laptop here at work where I'm pilfering off of another WiFi, since the firewall off of our server doesn't allow access to forums like this. I have a friend who is bringing his generator to my house tomorrow for a few hours where I'll be able to recharge some well water and bring the house up to temp so pipes don't freeze as it's getting closer to 32. He has no power either so he'll be taking it back. I'll go back to the house tonight to sleep - If I'm lucky temps will hold around 40 in the house. I've done backcountry camping, I'll be fine under the covers. I have a gas stove so I can at least fire up some hot beverages and actually made myself a very hearty meal by candlelight.
I consider us "Western NY"
EEEEE!!!! I remember the Ice Storm of 98 (ok, i lived on the other side of Canada :o) & know how much damage it did! Yowsers!!!
Keep warm & take care of yourselves.
Ya know what happens in 9months after events like this! Perhaps the economic climate might change that though?
sex is pretty cheap entertainment.Quote:
Originally Posted by crazycanuck
Chuckle. Yes it is. Fortunately I am too old to worry what might happen after 9 months, well, in transition at least. Signing off until who knows when, unless I come to work tomorrow to warm up. Man with generator is coming tonight instead of tomorrow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Biciclista
Here's hoping that you guys are safe and warm tonight. That ice storm was a real doozy. :eek:
Yea, it's true that most people think anything north of NYC is "upstate" NY. But real upstate is pretty far north!
I just got back from dinner and I have come to find out that just 5 miles from my house, almost the whole nearby town is without power. We weren't sure if the restaurant we were going to in Westford had power, but it seemed like they got it on in the business district first. My friends in Acton were without power for like 8 hours yesterday and where I used to live (Boxborough) is still without. I heard my old neighborhood looks pretty bad, with downed lines and trees, pretty much like Mudmucker described.
I feel lucky.
I would have to agree with that..It is just that I have heard many people clasify it as upstate as well. I tell people here in CO that I grew up near Buffalo even though I grew up near Rochester as most know or have heard of Buffalo before. Whenever I tell people I am from NY, even if I say the western part they always think I am from the city.Quote:
Originally Posted by songlady
I feel lucky too! This section of Worcester didn't get hit too hard. I'm wondering if there will even be power at church tomorrow (in Fitchburg, which apparently got hit pretty hard along with all the other towns in that area). Better dress really warmly... Then I was planning on doing a trail run in the Princeton area but am wondering if it will even be possible to get to the trail! Might have to go to plan B.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
I might postpone that trail run. It might be covered with ice. We wanted to do a local hike today, but I am not sure what the conditions will be, even right by my house. Maybe I'll end up going to Lincoln Woods, just a bit further east.
Hi everyone!
Our area was very badly hit with the ice storm. We were without power for almost 2 1/2 days, and two of those nights dipped down to 15F degrees. :eek:
We are lucky that we got our power back during the night last night- others in neighboring villages and back roads may still go until Tuesday without heat or power. :eek:
Our house inside only dropped down to 50F, so our single living room fireplace insert stove (which is not designed to heat the whole house) did manage to keep us from freezing. We always figured it would be enough to keep us from freezing, and it passed the test.
We had running water all throughout the event too, because we are hooked up to the village water system which is gravity-fed from the little reservoir up on the hill. Thus, we don't have to depend on electric to run a pump from a well. So we had freezing cold water, -but water nonetheless!....we could flush toilets and had drinking/washing water. This is one big advantage of living on the edge of our little village as opposed to further out in the countryside surrounding us. This was one of the reasons we bought this house- that we would have access to town walking in emergencies and if gas was unobtainable, and would always have village water if electricity failed. The houses only about two houses further out from us are not on village water system, and thus had no running water.
I was also very glad that on Thursday (before the power went out Thurs evening) I was able to both fix a flat tire on my car AND get my kitty Pearl to the vet and get her started on some antibiotics for an infection- she had been getting sick for a few days prior. That would have been bad if she was cold AND getting sicker during all this.
Our other blessing was that there was miraculously power down on Main street during the whole time, so we bundled up several times and hiked the mile to town for big hot breakfasts Fri and Sat morning. That was nice, and we could get the latest 'emergency news' from everyone while in town. There was a state of emergency declared and people were not supposed to be driving unless it was an emergency.
We had lots of food, and we had plenty of lanterns and candles and flashlights. (I am sort of anal when it comes to being prepared, and we had tons of candle lanterns, 30 spare candles for them, several oil lamps, and lots of flashlights and a battery radio, a propane camp stove that could be used out in the yard if needed, and canned and dried food in the basement. We put the fridge contents into coolers and didn't lose any significant food. Since it was below freezing outside, we just put our freezer stuff in a cooler out on the porch and left it there.
Our basement has a pool of water everywhere because the sump pump was without power, but luckily we have a little emergency drain in the floor that was still functioning, so the water never got higher than 1 inch. Other people were not so lucky and had badly flooded basements.
Some of our elderly neighbors got moved out of their homes into relatives' houses or to shelters. We have elderly neighbors on 3 sides of us, but they were all fine and we kept in touch.
We closed off the upstairs so as not to waste precious heat from the woodstove, wore lots of wool, gloves and hats in the house, and piled blankets and kitties on the bed at night. During the day the cats liked hanging out in front of the stove. I read a book by lantern light both nights.
It wasn't much fun feeling cold all the time and knowing how we were slowly getting further and further behind in work, but it could have been way worse like it has been for many other people. (trees falling on their houses and cars, and one older friend of ours fell on the ice in town on thursday and broke his hip AND his wrist.)
The worst for us personally is that our beautiful 45 year old HUGE white pine in the back yard was devastated. It was about 50-60 feet tall and gorgeous, and at least 2/3 of all its large horizontal branches are broken off and it now looks like a sad tall splintered toothpick with some remaining smaller branches decorating it. We feel heartsick about it, but we'll have to wait til all this ice has melted before we even access what to do about it. It was so beautiful. :(
We are very grateful for a warm house now, hot showers, etc. This kind of thing teaches you not to take electricity for granted. This was a TERRIBLE ice storm, and will take WEEKS of cleanup and repair for many people. I read that power crews came in from as far away as Michigan (!!) to help get the power lines up again, working all throughout the 3 nights in 15F degree temps.
They are all still working like mad as many are still without heat or power.
So, we are back up and running, a grateful. :)
Wow, Lisa!!!! What a story. I'm so glad you were prepared. The rain that lasted for two days here in Delaware was just rain and then it headed your way. Few people here plan for such a thing as a major ice storm but ice is no respector of persons and we should be prepared.
Yes, thank goodness you got Pearl to the vet before the storm and I'm glad it turned out to be an adventure for you rather than a disaster.
Glad to hear things are getting up and running again. Ice storms are NOT good things - so much damage.
Many Kudos and thanks to all the linemen and women for their long hours in horrible conditions to get the power up again.
We are currently in the thoes of a blizzard. I will take a blizzard over ice any day.
- We have heat
- we have power
-we have internet :D
- No one has to go out in it (I don't know if the plows are out anymore or not - often they pull them until things settle down)
- If travel is absolutely necessary (medical, police) - snowmobiles are readily available
Yup - I will take a blizzard over ice any day.
Glad to hear you were able to get kitty taken care of. Best of luck on the cleanup
Glad to see you're back, Lisa!
Glad you are okay, Lisa!
My house doesn't have a fireplace anymore, but I have a kerosene heater, and our workshop has a big wood stove in it, and we could move out there if necessary. So far it hasn't been necessary in past ice storms.
But, my ex-husband and I lived with a wood stove as our only form of heat, and on a well, which needs electricity. The power went off frequently for random reasons, not the least of which was cold weather. We were warm and we could cook with propane, but had no water. I'd rather go without food, because I can always build a fire or eat cold food. Having water makes black-outs tolerable, even adventurous!
Karen
Lisa, bless your heart. I'm thankful your house was not damaged and that you, with your pioneering spirit, prevailed. :) Ice storms are not fun! Our area was hit with one in '94 and people were without electricity for up to a month!
Our region is going to be hit with rain/ice come Monday night through Tuesday. :eek: Looks like I'll be heading to the store to get stocked up on goods today.
I attempted it but didn't get very far because there were trees and branches down everywhere! It was more climbing over stuff than running and it was hard to even see the next trail marker at times because things were piled so high. The ice on the trail was the least of the problems (there were chunks of ice from the trees, but not solid sheets of ice).Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
We thought of going into the woods to take some pictures of the beautiful ice formations....but it's way too dangerous to go in the woods! Big tree limbs are still occasionally falling. you can hear them fall every time the wind kicks up. :(
The night of the storm, thursday night, we lay in bed with no power and no light. It was pitch black outside and ice and frozen rain was coming down heavily. This was so scary- you could hear big trees cracking and falling literally every 60 seconds or so, from various directions and at varying distances. Big trees crashing down....crack crack crack....all night sounding like rifles and guns being shot, echoing through the night. Every once in a while our giant pine near the house would drop another limb and we lay there afraid the whole 60 ft tree would crash down onto the house while we lay there. What seemed like flashes of lightning every 10 minutes were actually electric lines being torn down by the trees and flashing as they hit the ground, lighting up the sky. It was a very scary and surreal night.
The next morning when we went outside you could still hear trees coming down every 5 minutes or so from somewhere- all day long on Friday. Poor trees! :(
That is quite frightening. Sounds like a war zone! And then when the transformers on the power poles blow up, yikes!
I try not to stay in my house when there is heavy ice. We have a huge oak tree about 20 yards from the house, and the neighbor had 2 on her lot between our houses.
Stay safe, ya'll!
Karen
Wow, I'm glad you're okay.
Note to self..you are completely unprepaired. Who gets the single serving of oatmeal which is about the only thing in the cupboard? Good thing there's cat food.
Off to the store.
Many people are still with out power here in the Albany area. My SIL and her family are staying with us (still). My daycare provider has been told not to expect power before Weds., and both of those houses are in the city of Albany. I drove through eastern Rensselaer County yesterday, and it was a mess with trees and lines down.
Lisa, I'm glad you are okay (and had running water). Ice storms are beautiful but scary IMO. Hope life gets back to normal in a timely fashion.
Pam
We had a beautiful day yesterday. Seventy degrees, warm gusts from the south. Then about 4:30 I looked out and saw the line of dark gray clouds to the north. I walked out across the yard, thinking about how nice and warm it was, going to the workshop where my husband was so I could show him the sky. Suddenly, a COLD strong wind hit me from the north. It was liking opening a refrigerator door!
In one hour it had begun to rain and thunder. In two hours the temperature had dropped 30 degrees. Sometime in the night the rain turned over to sleet, the temperature dropped to 17, and now every surface is covered in ice pellets. The trees escaped much of a coating, I guess because the rain had time to drop off and dry in the wind before the sleet and ice pellets started up. But all the roads are slick and all the schools are closed. And we're stuck here with no milk in the fridge!
Karen